Punch shots: MLS should be wary of venture in Atlanta

If I was the commissioner of any professional sport, Atlanta would be the last city I would grant an expansion franchise.

But thatís exactly what MLS boss Don Garber did Wednesday, awarding the Georgia capital a team that will begin play in 2017.

The movers and shakers behind the deal eagerly pointed out that Atlantaís increasingly diverse greater metropolitan area of 5.5 million residents includes a Hispanic population that has doubled over the last decade. Citing last monthís international friendly between Mexico and Nigeria that set a Georgia Dome soccer attendance record of 68,212, they boasted that the community is ready to embrace the beautiful game like never before.

Yet capacity crowds for special events should not obscure the fact that fans in the area routinely fail to support any pro franchise not named the Falcons. The Braves struggle to fill the ballpark for anything less than a World Series game. The Hawks couldnít pack the arena when Dominique Wilkins was creating human highlight films. Hockey was such a disaster that they lost their team ó twice ó and even a number of pro soccer franchises have received lukewarm support since the NASLís Atlanta Chiefs debuted in 1967.

Instead of caving in to his manifest destiny of growing the league to 24 teams by 2020, Garber would have been wise to ignore the nationís ninth-largest television market and the seemingly bottomless bank account of Atlanta Falcons owner/Home Depot founder Arthur Blank.